


The Lies That Bind Us

by norakwami



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: and you were worried about teenage superheroes eating you out of house and home, tribbles are bad mmkay
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-23
Updated: 2019-06-15
Packaged: 2020-03-09 23:22:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18927061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/norakwami/pseuds/norakwami
Summary: Lila brings her new pet hamster to school. The class is enchanted with the adorable ball of fluff... with the exception of Marinette, who recognizes that little menace as the tribble it is, and Adrien, who knows lying comes as easily as breathing to their Italian classmate. Unfortunately, tribbles aren't supposed to be real, which means that there's an akumatized villain loose somewhere in Paris.Will Ladybug and Chat Noir be able to find it before the tiny terrors overrun the city?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a continuation of the piece I wrote for one of the WTF February prompts.

The first thing Adrien noticed when he trudged into Miss Bustier's classroom was the gaggle of girls that surrounded Lila at her desk. That was nothing new. Lila had been captivating the entire class with her tall tales since her first day at Collège Françoise Dupont. As aggravating as it could be, today he was thankful that they were distracted enough to not notice the state he was in after last night's hours-long battle against Hawk Moth's most recent victim.

“Oh, it's absolutely adorable!” Rose cooed, clasping her hands under her chin. Juleka nodded and murmured something that he couldn't hear even with the enhanced senses that came from being Chat Noir for so long.

“Isn't it?” Lila said. “I can't believe Prince Ali gifted me this incredibly rare hamster from the kingdom of Achu for my birthday!”

Adrien barely suppressed a snort at that. Lila had probably never met the crown prince of Achu, but she knew that Rose had and tended to drop his name as often as she could to impress the blonde-haired girl.

“He really is so wonderful and generous, isn't he?” Rose sighed dreamily.

“Can I pet it?” Alya asked.

“Of course!” Lila exclaimed, holding the little ball of fur up.

Alya ran a hand over it and squealed in delight. “Oh my gosh, it's so _soft!_ ”

There was a brief flurry of activity as all the girls in the class took turns petting the hamster, which cooed at the touch. That was odd—he could have sworn that hamster vocalizations usually consisted of chirps, squeaks and squeals, and occasional screams—but maybe it really _was_ a rare breed. He wouldn't put it past the girl to buy one herself. She'd done that with the necklace she'd passed off as the fox miraculous, after all.

He took his seat and pulled his tablet out of his bag, hoping to avoid notice and knock out the rest of his physics homework before the bell rang. It wasn't meant to be.

 “Oh, Adrien, come see my new pet!” Lila exclaimed.

He winced. “No thanks, Lila. I really need to finish this assignment.”

“C'mon, Adrien, you love hamsters! And this one's the cutest thing ever!” Alya said.

“Have you ever felt a chinchilla?” Mylène asked. “It feels kind of like that, but even softer!”

He was saved from having to answer when the door slammed open and Marinette careened into the room. She posed triumphantly in front of his desk. “Ha! Made it with time to spare!”

Adrien chuckled. “Good morning, Marinette.”

“Ah!” Marinette gave him a look reminiscent of a deer caught in headlights. “I—uh--good morning!”

“Girl, come see this!” Alya called to her. “Prince Ali gave Lila the most adorable hamster for her birthday.”  
  
“A hamster?” Marinette asked, frowning. “We're not supposed to bring pets to school.”  
  
“Oh, I'm sure Miss Bustier will understand when I explain that I wasn't able to return home between seeing Prince Ali off at the airport this morning and school starting. They're nocturnal anyway so he's very sleepy now. She won't even know he's here.”

Marinette looked skeptical but didn't say anything more as she stowed her bag next to her seat. Alya bounced down the stairs between them and took her by the wrist, pulling her up to Lila's level.

Adrien turned around in his seat just in time to see the color drain from Marinette's face.

“That's not a hamster, Lila,” she said in a tone that sent his stomach plummeting in dread.

“What? Of _course_ it's a hamster,” Lila said, scandalized.

“No, it's not,” Marinette said firmly. “It's a _tribble_.”

 

***

Adrien was blown away by the fact that not a single one of their classmates, including Ladyblogger extraordinaire Alya, even considered the possibility that Marinette could be right. Some of the students had laughed. Others had outright scoffed at Marinette's proclamation, because who didn't know that tribbles were fictional alien creatures from _Star Trek?_

He shook his head at that, because they all lived in Paris, home of a supervillain who routinely sent magically-empowered butterflies out to terrorize the citizens with things like mind-controlled flocks of pigeons and fire-breathing flying catfish harnessed to the charred remnants of Santa's sleigh. Bringing fictional creatures to life was nowhere near outside the realm of possibility.

“It really _does_ look more like a tribble than a hamster,” he said. Marinette shot him a grateful look, and that was more than worth the round of snickering he got from the rest of the class for his effort.

“Didn't take you for that much of a nerd, Agreste,” Alix said.

Before he could say anything, Miss Bustier breezed into the room. The girls scrambled for their seats as she called the class to order.

Nobody said a word about the tribble, which Lila had stowed in her oversized purse.

 

***

“Of course she's feeding it,” Marinette muttered darkly behind him. Adrien bit back a grin at the distinctive sound of her palm meeting her forehead. “Because we can't just avoid the whole 'exponential reproduction' thing.”

He surreptitiously glanced at his phone, which he'd pulled out to double-check for akuma alerts. Before he could think better of it, he pulled up her contact in his messaging app and sent her a meme of Captain Picard and Commander Riker facepalming.

A few minutes later, Marinette squeaked in surprise. When he glanced back at his phone, she'd sent him a picture of Worf with the caption “stares in Klingon” in response. It was quickly followed by a terse text.

_That looks shopped. I can tell from some of the pixels._

He barely managed to cover his laugh with a cough, though from the look Miss Bustier gave him it wasn't convincing enough to fool her. Resigned to waiting until the akuma victim decided to show their face, he slipped his phone back into his pocket and hoped it would be sooner rather than later.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *throws Adrinette fluff haphazardly into the air like confetti*

 

By lunchtime, Lila's one tribble had become eleven tribbles and she'd given up any pretense of hiding them in favor of claiming they were “emotional support hamsters” that she was training for one of Prince Ali's charities. Miss Bustier's class had resumed cooing over the creatures as soon as the bell rang. Adrien watched the scene from his place at the bottom of the stairs, torn between exasperation at the fact that _his classmates really were buying this hook, line, and sinker_ and amusement because Marinette stood next to her desk a few steps above him, rage-gnawing on her phone and audibly growling.

“You know,” he drawled, startling another squeak out of her, “I know a great little café not too far from here that makes way better food than Samsung. Wanna go?”

She stared at him with wide blue eyes, cheeks flushing adorably. Adrien couldn't keep himself from grinning as she stammered an agreement and hesitantly took the arm he offered her. He could feel Lila's intense gaze on them as he escorted her out of the classroom. At least he wouldn't have to worry about Hawk Moth targeting her yet again with a butterfly already in play.

He snuck a peek at his phone on the walk over under the pretense of making sure Nathalie hadn't texted him any last-minute schedule changes for the day. Nothing new had been posted on the Ladyblog, but Alya had uploaded a quick little feel-good piece featuring Lila and her “emotional support hamsters” to her personal blog. He rolled his eyes at that and pulled up the TVi app, skimming through the headlines for any mention of the akumatized villain.

Nothing yet. It was unusual but not completely unheard of. Hawk Moth's style trended towards garish costumes and flashy powers designed to get Ladybug and Chat Noir's attention as quickly as possible, but every once in a while there would be one like Vanisher or Chameleon who could pass under the radar. In hindsight, it was probably a _very_ good thing that Lila had gone completely off the rails and given herself away when she became Chameleon.

Next to him, Marinette scowled at her own phone screen. Adrien was momentarily concerned--her parents hadn't vetoed their impromptu lunch date, had they?--but she was scrolling through the locally trending tags on social media, not texting.

“No sign of the victim yet, huh?” he asked.

She shook her head. “None at all. The only thing so far is Lila's horde of tribbles.”

“Excuse you, those are perfectly legitimate emotional support hamsters,” he snarked, staring down his nose at her. “She had them imported from Achu by the prince himself.”

Marinette gaped at him until he winked at her. Then she swatted his arm... and seemed to promptly second guess herself, as she practically fell all over herself apologizing. He watched in bemusement as she somehow spiraled from causing him bodily harm to his father hating her to her career in fashion being over before it even really began and how she'd have to move to some deserted tropical island in shame and subsist on nothing but fruit and the only company she would ever again have would be her hamster named--

“Marinette!” he said, catching one of her wrists as she flailed. “Relax. You barely touched me. No harm done.”

“You're sure?” she asked, shyly peeking up at him through her bangs.

“Absolutely! If anything, I kinda deserved that,” he said.

“You totally did,” she said, and promptly flushed, burying her face in her hands.

He cackled and gently bumped her shoulder with his own. “Here we are,” he said, gesturing grandly at the little hole-in-the-wall place he'd brought her to.

Marinette pulled her hands away from her face and stared in open surprise. “Oh! I've been wanting to try this place for a while now. What's good?”

“Everything,” he laughed. Marinette groaned.

“That doesn't help at all, you know!”

“It's true, though!”

They fell into a companionable silence as they were led to a table and given menus to peruse.

“You usually get the salads here, don't you?” Marinette asked.

Adrien shook his head. “Hardly ever, actually. I've tried pretty much everything at least once, but the onglet and the magret are my favorites.”

Her eyebrows shot up at that. “Really? All I've ever seen you share on social media is the salads!”

“Ah, yeah,” he said, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. “My poor dietitian would probably have a coronary if she knew exactly how non-compliant I am with my meal plans.”

He leaned forward, giving her his best kitten eyes, and pressing his palms together in front of him. “Please, Marinette, you can't ever tell _anyone_ that probably more than half of those salad photos are actually the same salad rotated a few degrees, rearranged just a bit, and posted with different filters.”

Marinette stared at him for a minute before dissolving into giggles. “You're kidding!”

“Gospel truth,” he replied, crossing his heart.

“Oh my god, you _rebel,_ ” she said. “What's next, ditching the 'radiant, carefree, dreamy' look for leather and chains?”

He sat back and seriously considered that. His father would never approve of anything that deviated from the carefully cultivated personal brand he'd created for his son, but... well, the list of things that Adrien just simply didn't share with his father _was_ steadily growing along with the void between them.

“Sure,” he said, giving her a classic Chat Noir smirk-and-wink combination for good measure. “As long as it's a Marinette Dupain-Cheng original. I have standards to maintain, you know.”

“Oh my god,” she repeated. “You can't be serious.”  
“Of course I'm serious!” he replied, scandalized and fully prepared to argue with her about her own talent as a designer.

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “Absolutely not. You're too cool to be emulating Chat Noir.”

 _That's what she's worried about?_ He blinked and allowed himself a lazy smirk. “Am I really?”

“You really are,” she said quietly. “If anything, Chat Noir should be the one emulating you.”

He stared at her, wide-eyed in surprise. In his pocket, Plagg shook with silent laughter. He was saved from having to come up with a response to that by the arrival of their server.

 

***

Marinette excused herself from the table as soon as the server left and casually fled to the bathroom.

“Oh my god, Tikki,” Marinette whisper-shouted at her kwami as soon as the bathroom door was locked. “He's flirting with me. _Adrien Agreste_ is flirting with _me!”_

The little goddess flitted out of her purse with a giggle. “It sure seems that way, doesn't it?”

“Oh my god,” Marinette repeated. “What do I _do?”_

“Flirt back?” Tikki said helpfully.

“Tikki!” Marinette groaned, silently cursing the way the kwami could make it sound so _simple._ “I told him he was too cool to be emulating Chat Noir!”

“He didn't seem to mind,” Tikki pointed out, punctuating it with another giggle.

“He didn't really have time to respond to that, though,” Marinette said. “Hey, Tikki... You don't think I'm being too lax about this akuma victim, do you?”

Tikki shook her head. “I don't think so, Marinette. This seems to be a really passive one, and so far all we've seen are the tribbles that Lila had with her.”

“Yeah,” Marinette said. “None of our usual sources had anything posted about the victim, either.”

“They haven't,” Tikki agreed. “I'll keep an eye on your phone for alerts in case it shows up while you're eating.”

Marinette groaned again. “Is it bad that I hope it _doesn't?_ Ugh, that's so selfish, but this is going so well and I'd hate to have to come up with an excuse to leave. Not to mention I'd be ditching _Adrien Agreste._ Ugh.”

“Not at all!” Tikki pressed against her cheek. “You deserve to enjoy yourself, too.

“Besides,” she continued slyly, “I'd say Adrien's enjoying himself just as much as you are.”

Marinette smiled at that. “He really is, isn't he?”

***

Plagg stared smugly up at his Chosen from his spot in Adrien's pocket. Adrien could feel his eyes on him, but studiously ignored his kwami in favor of scrolling through the TVi app's headlines again and delving into some of the top akuma-related tags on social media.

“Still no sign of it, huh?” Plagg murmured. Adrien hummed in agreement and pocketed the phone again. “Good.”

“Good?” Adrien asked against his glass, taking a sip to cover the seemingly one-sided conversation.

“Yeah, good,” Plagg said. “It's been ages since you've gotten to enjoy yourself like this, and I don't have to worry about losing my appetite because your friends can't stop playing tonsil hockey.”

Adrien snorted. “Yeah, it'd be a real shame if we had to leave before they bring the cheese plate out, wouldn't it?”

“Honestly, there could be tears,” Plagg deadpanned. Adrien choked on his mouthful of water.

“Are you all right?” Marinette asked, sliding back into her seat with a look of concern. He nodded.

“Yeah, I'm great,” he said. “Just swallowed wrong.”

Plagg cackled in his pocket. He was saved from further embarrassment by the arrival of their food and was delighted by the way Marinette's eyes lit up as she took the first bite of the chicken dish she'd decided on.

“Oh, this is amazing,” she said.

He grinned at her. “Told you.”

“You did,” she agreed. “I'm so glad we decided to do this.”

“Me, too,” Adrien admitted. “We should definitely do this more often.”

“Yeah,” Marinette said. “I'd really like that. It's too bad you don't get more free time with all your activities. How do you even have time for homework with everything that you do?”

He paused mid-bite. “Oh, crap.”

Marinette looked up, startled. “What's wrong?”

“I just forgot to finish last night's physics homework,” he said apologetically. “I meant to do it this morning, but the whole tribble thing happened.”

“Oh. _Crap,”_ Marinette said. “I didn't even _start_ it.”

He glanced at the clock on his phone. “We've got enough time to knock it out after we finish here.”

Marinette snorted. “ _You_ might. I'm absolutely hopeless when it comes to this stuff.”

“I doubt it. Miss Mendeleiev's method of teaching is a lot different than the way my tutors taught me when I was homeschooled. Sometimes all it takes is a different perspective for things to click and start making sense.” He took a bite of one of his fries and considered their options. “We could grab a table in the library, but knowing Lila she'll probably have a crowd in the courtyard again.”

“Probably,” Marinette grumbled. “And we could go to my place, but that requires running the gauntlet of parental interference.”

Adrien snickered. “I wouldn't mind that,” he started.

“I would,” Marinette said darkly, stabbing a piece of zucchini with more force than was strictly necessary.

“Okay, that's out,” he said. “The weather's good today. What about heading to the park?”

She brightened at that. “Oh, that sounds great. We can grab one of the picnic tables and hopefully get everything finished before we have to be back at school.”

They finished the meal companionably, their conversation moving from homework to video games. Marinette protested when he insisted on paying their tab, but relented when Adrien pointed out that it was only proper seeing how he'd been the one to extend the invitation in the first place.

As they left, they passed a couple who were speaking with the hostess. Adrien winced inwardly as he caught sight of a familiar ball of fur in the woman's arms.

_So much for hoping that this isn't going to spread too far, huh?_

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

“And done!” Marinette cheered happily, plunking her pencil down on top of the notebook filled with her scratch work and offering her closed fist to Adrien. He didn't hesitate to bump it with his own.

“Pound it!” they chorused in unison, then promptly stared at each other in surprise before cracking up.

“See? I told you you weren't hopeless at this,” Adrien declared after they'd regained a bit of their composure. Marinette nodded. They'd made short work of the assignment once they sat down to do it, and Adrien had been right about a different perspective making all the difference for her where physics was concerned. He'd walked her step-by-step through a few of the problems he still needed to complete, and then she'd been able to complete the rest of the assignment with only a few mistakes that he'd guided her through recognizing and correcting.

“Thanks,” she said shyly. “If it weren't for you mentioning it earlier I wouldn't have even remembered to do it.”

He laughed again. “You were actually the one who reminded me about it, remember?”

“Oh, right,” she said, stowing her things in her school bag. She spared a moment to peek into her purse at Tikki, who beamed brilliantly at her but shook her head. Still no sign of the akuma victim, then.

It was probably a blessing in disguise if she was being honest with herself. Her attendance had been bad enough recently without throwing another ditched class or three into the mix. The last thing she needed was another lecture from her parents about responsibility.

If only they knew.

“Shall we head back?” Adrien asked, putting his own tablet away. She felt a small pang of jealousy at the fact that he was able to solve most of the problems mentally. He'd waved her praise off in that classic Adrien way, insisting that he was only able to do it because he'd had so much practice with the types of problems they were doing.

“I suppose. We'll be cutting it a bit too close if we wait much longer.” They shouldered their bags and headed in the direction of the school. She snuck a glance at him and was surprised to find him doing the same thing. He smiled shyly at her.

“Did you happen to see the couple we passed as we were leaving the restaurant?” he asked.

She nodded, eyes widening. “She had a tribble with her, didn't she?”

“Yeah,” he said, sighing. “It's not surprising if they're reproducing at the same rate they do in the show, but it's concerning. Who knows how many there were to start with.”

“And there's been no sign of the actual akuma victim,” she said.

“That, too,” he agreed. “It's too bad Alya's convinced they're hamsters. She's not going to agree to put out an alert on the Ladyblog over that.”

“Yeah. I'm sure Ladybug and Chat Noir will notice something's up, but at this rate Paris is going to be overrun by tribbles before they're able to track down the victim,” Marinette said.

“I really hope it doesn't come down to that,” Adrien said. “Miraculous Ladybug might fix the damage they do, but it'll be better if they track down the victim before the tribbles are able to eat Paris out of house and home.”

She shuddered at the thought of the ravenous furballs invading her parents' bakery, indiscriminately clearing the shelves of baked goods and the ingredients to make them. No, that was exactly the scenario she wanted to avoid.

***

“Hey, girl, welcome back!” Alya greeted Marinette as she and Adrien walked into the school's courtyard. She held a cooing tribble in her hands. “You missed all the fun! Lila talked to Prince Ali during lunch and it turns out that none of the new hamsters were quite what the charity is looking for in their emotional support animals, so she let us pick our own to keep!”

“That's very generous of her,” Adrien said tactfully.

“Isn't it?” Alya gushed, rubbing her cheek against her new pet. Marinette shared a knowing look with Adrien. He shrugged with an apologetic little smile.

“See you in class, Marinette,” he said, breaking off to join Nino across the courtyard. She watched as they bumped fists and headed for the locker room.

“So what's going on between the two of you, huh?” Alya asked, bumping her shoulder against Marinette's suggestively. “You were gone for most of the lunch break. Don't tell me that you're trying to make your move on Adrien now that he's with Lila.”

“W-what are you talking about?” Marinette asked.

Alya regarded her with a flat stare. “Girl. You saw the picture she sent out to everyone. You gonna tell me there's nothing going on between the two of them?”

“Seriously, Alya?” Marinette asked, fixing her with a similar expression of her own. “One photo taken out of context does not a relationship make.”

“It's not taken out of context, though!” Alya insisted. She held up a hand with her index and middle fingers crossed. “She and Adrien are like this. I know you're jealous, but you've got to put this grudge aside for his sake. Trying to force your way in between them isn't cool.”

“Trying to force my way in between them?” Marinette repeated incredulously. “He asked me to go to lunch with him!”

“You didn't have to say yes,” Alya retorted.

So this was how it was going to be, Marinette thought with a sinking heart. Lila was determined to follow through on her threat to alienate her from all of her friends, and she was going to try to use Adrien to do it.

“No,” she said decisively, straightening up and squaring her shoulders. She hadn't done anything wrong by accepting Adrien's invitation, and she'd be damned if she let her so-called best friend send her on a guilt trip for it. “I didn't have to. But I'm damn glad I did. We had a great time. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to class.”

***

Adrien's heart leapt into his throat when Marinette stormed into Miss Mendeleiev's classroom. He was already scanning the area for signs of an incoming purple butterfly when the fact that there was already an active victim clicked. Marinette smiled apologetically at him and slipped into her seat behind him.

He spun to face her, leaning his elbows on her table. “Everything okay?”

“No.” Marinette sighed. “Alya just confronted me about having lunch with you because _apparently_ that photo Lila sent out to everyone means that you two are an item now.”

“Seriously?” He barely held back a groan. Of course that selfie Lila had snapped when she invaded his room would be coming back to haunt him again. He should have known it wasn't going to stop at Kagami's akumatization and Nathalie and Gorilla's punishments for allowing her to force her way in in the first place.

Marinette nodded miserably and buried her head in her arms. “I kind of don't even want to deal with her right now,” she mumbled.

“Fair enough,” Adrien said, nodding. “Want to see if Miss Mendeleiev will let us switch partners for today's lab?”

She peeked up at him. “You know, that sounds fantastic. Let's do it.”

He'd figured they had about a fifty-fifty chance of Miss Mendeleiev agreeing to let him partner with Marinette for the day, all dependent on the irascible science teacher's mood. He was pleasantly bemused when his request was met with a knowing smirk. “I'll allow it,” she said, “as long as it doesn't become disruptive.”

The way Lila's eyes narrowed as she took in the seating change didn't surprise him. The glare Alya gave Marinette as she stomped to her seat did. Would it be worthwhile to address what she'd said to Marinette earlier? Maybe, but he wouldn't interfere directly without discussing it with Marinette beforehand.

***

Adrien Agreste was a _nerd._

Marinette giggled as he punched holes in soda cans and waxed poetic about Héron d'Alexandrie's accomplishments. Today's lab was a simple one; they were creating basic Hero's engines with the cans to investigate Newton's third law of motion. Adrien had been practically bouncing in his seat by the time the packets had been handed out, and he'd been downright gleeful when she suggested that he could do most of the hands-on process while she took care of the sketches for their lab report.

“My tutor showed me videos of this experiment, but I've never been able to do it myself,” he'd explained sheepishly.

Honestly, his enthusiasm was adorable. Not that she'd tell him that to his face, of course, but he'd been delighted by the way their cans had spun as the water drained out of the holes and she found herself unable to say no when he asked if she'd mind if he modified a couple of their cans and did a few more rounds of experimentation than were actually necessary.

They were still one of the first groups finished with the physical portion of the lab and tackled answering the questions together after cleaning up their materials. She'd just passed the completed packet off to Adrien so he could review it when she heard a gasp behind her and found herself suddenly drenched.

“Oh, no,” Lila wailed insincerely. “I'm so sorry, Marinette! I wasn't expecting the arthritis in my wrist to act up like that!”

_Yeah, right_ , Marinette thought, as Alya jumped up out of her own seat to grab the now-empty bucket Lila was holding. There was no way that had been an accident, but there was also no way she'd be able to prove it.

“Are you all right, Marinette?” Adrien asked worriedly.

“Yeah, I'm fine,” she grumbled, picking up her soaked notebook and watching the water drip off it. “It's just water.”

“And you, Lila?” he asked. Marinette side-eyed him as Lila answered in the affirmative; surely he wasn't _that_ naive?

“Are you sure? I'm sure Miss Mendeleiev would have no problem with letting you go to the nurse's office to have your wrist looked at. If you're going into a sudden flare it's probably best to do what you can to minimize swelling and pain, right?” He sounded so sincere Marinette would have bought it if not for the twinkle of mischief in his eyes.

“Oh, no,” Lila said, waving off the suggestion with her 'injured' wrist. “It was just a passing moment of weakness, that's all.”

“Let's err on the side of caution, Miss Rossi, and have the nurse make sure that that's all it is,” Miss Mendeleiev said. Lila pouted but complied, and the teacher turned to Marinette. “Miss Dupain-Cheng, do you have a change of clothes here on campus?”

“I don't,” she said.

Miss Mendeleiev sighed. “You may call your parents to see if one of them can bring you something,” she said.

Marinette grimaced. “They're usually pretty busy at this time of day. I'd hate to bother them.”

“I could have my bodyguard do it,” Adrien volunteered.

“Oh, no, I couldn't inconvenience him like that,” Marinette said, flailing. Adrien laughed.

“You'd be doing him a favor, actually. He doesn't really have much to do during the day now that I'm in school,” he said, then leaned conspiratorially towards her. “Besides, he looks for excuses to visit the best bakery in Paris.”

“Well, if you're sure it's not any trouble,” she said, biting her lip.

“It's not!” He beamed at her. Within a few minutes, she'd gotten her mother to agree to round up a new outfit for her, and Adrien had coordinated the pickup with his bodyguard. By the time he arrived with the duffel bag her mother had packed, she and Adrien had gotten the majority of the water Lila had spilled cleaned up with the help of a few others who were finished with their work. Marinette's physics notebook was a complete loss, but Adrien offered to bring her a copy of his own notes so she was going to count that as a win.

She shared a quick giggle with Tikki over how thoroughly Lila's antics had backfired on her, then nearly walked into the other girl as she was leaving the bathroom after changing.

Lila's expression was thunderous. She stood with her arms crossed, bright gauze peeking out from where her 'injured' wrist was tucked under her other arm, radiating fury.

A shadow fell over them both and the expression was gone in an instant. Adrien's bodyguard gestured for the duffel Marinette held, and she handed it over in surprise. She hadn't realized that he hadn't left yet. “Oh, thank you,” she said. He nodded, slinging it over his shoulder.

“How sweet of you to help Marinette out like this,” Lila simpered. The bodyguard grunted noncommittally and motioned for the girls to precede him down the hall. Marinette smiled at him, and swore his lips quirked up a bit in return. He accompanied them all the way into the classroom, where he garnered a glare from Miss Mendeleiev as he handed off a small package of macarons to Adrien.

_Passion fruit_ macarons, Marinette noted. Curse her meddling parents. Curse Adrien's meddling bodyguard, too, because the man had the audacity to wink at her as he turned to leave. She buried her face in her hands, mortified.

“Do you know what flavor those are, Marinette? I don't remember seeing those on display before,” Adrien said after tucking the macarons into his bag.

“They're fassion pruit,” she muttered.

“Passion fruit?” Adrien asked.

“Ugh, yes. Passion fruit,” she repeated.

“I love passion fruit,” he said, beaming. “Is that going to be a regular addition to the menu?”

“It's actually a special batch I made yesterday,” she admitted.

He brightened even further if that was even possible. “Really? Your macarons are the best,” he said, then suddenly looked stricken. “Please don't tell your dad I said that.”

She laughed even as Miss Mendeleiev shushed them. “He'd be proud that you thought so,” she whispered conspiratorially. “He's the one who taught me everything I know about French pastries.”

 


End file.
